[GoldenLand]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

So of course these latent criminals aren't getting better. If anything, I'd expect them to get worst.

But I'm not surprised that this is the situation in Sibyl Japan given what Sibyl itself is like. Sibyl looks down on empathy, and generally lacks it. So there's certain emotional truths that I don't think Sibyl is getting, and that is causing the situation to be far worse for these latent criminals than it has to be.

What's surprising is that Sybil supposedly doesn't already know this, though. They're not total idiots, or aren't supposed to be. Do they really need Akane to point out to them that they're being massively inefficient?

So there are a few conclusions to make here, IMO.

(a) Urobuchi just did that for the sake of the story, and didn't put much thought into it. Sybil are just idiots in regard to that issue because it's convenient for the plot.

(b) Or, also for the sake of the plot, it really is true that past a certain level, there is little that could be done to lower the psycho-passes of those people, even if conditions were improved for them. (Even though, judging by some scenes in the anime, the system seems very, very much as if it's not even trying to help people who look as if they could probably be helped.)

(b) Sybil do already know, and they don't care. Once somebody has passed a certain level, Sybil deliberately takes a point of no return, "now you are damaged goods and will never really be the same again" view and just writes them off as being worthless to the system. Possibly thinking that because once they'd already passed that level they could well return to it. If they believe that a person's value has become negative, they may not feel they are worthy of spending resources on.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

How did Akane prove this was a mistaken belief?

Presumably because Akane's own psycho-pass went up but then down again after her traumatic experience with Yuki and Makishima and the memory reconstruction. But this doesn't make any sense for proving that the belief is mistaken, because of Akane's own abnormality.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

But let's just say, for argument's sake, that most people are able to recuperate from their PP reading going into latent criminal levels. If so, don't you think there are better ways to go about recuperating such people then locking them up in solitary confinement?

Looking at the above, I have to wonder if perhaps Sybil doesn't want people to recover from very high PP levels? Perhaps they're using it to as a tool to affect people who aren't at those levels, threatening them to keep them in the right sort of mindset. "If you doubt Sybil, your Psycho-Pass will rise! And there'll be no recovery for you." Perhaps a state of constant vigilance about their psycho-pass is the aim. I don't remember it being public knowledge that most people never recover (it can't be, since Yayoi was surprised) but there must still be something in the public consciousness about it. People who become latent criminals almost never come back, and Gino seems to show that there's a stigma attached to knowing them.

TBH I suspect the no-recovery thing is just supposed to be there as a reflection of some tendencies in current human societies where troubled or mentally ill individuals and criminals who could be treated or rehabilitated are not offered the help they need and are left to rot.

For example, just looking at kids here, children at severe risk of becoming criminals in later life can be identified really early on, and studies have shown that if they're given intensive support from that early age, their outcomes can vastly improve. Sybil is quite possibly representing the society who would say "I won't waste any of my precious tax money on those worthless brats" or "they're already scum that can't be salvaged" even though society would actually make considerable gains from those kids growing up to become useful members of society and not commit crimes.

It's all very odd considering what a holistic system Sybil is supposed to be running. So presumably its choices in this regard are only there to hold up a mirror to things such as harshness behind supposedly caring societies. Lots of the things Urobuchi has done in this series have been noted as being there as reflections of modern society. I remember one person here saying that the way that latent criminals are judged as guilty despite having done nothing wrong is commentary on the way that Japanese culture assumes that a person is guilty if they have been charged with something.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

To clarify my point, think of Sibyl as a man courting a woman. That woman is Akane. A woman being courted by a man has the ability to wield some influence over that man. She can let it be known, or subtly imply, that if the man does certain things for her that his likelihood of successfully courting her goes up.

Akane has the ability to wield this sort of influence over Sibyl. There's nothing at all "completely unbelievable" about that ability. But she doesn't appear to be even trying to use it.

I can see what your point is here, but I think what you're overlooking is the power difference. Although Akane is valuable, Sybil can get rid of her any time it likes. They told her outright that she can either cooperate with them, or die. Akane has very little to bargain with, and no expectation of Sybil bending to her will. She was able to bargain that one time with them, but only because she could get them Makishima, and because the thing she wanted from them in return was of no value to them.

That said, during that process she was able to negotiate for the Dominator to be locked, even though Sybil was reluctant to do so and she had to talk tough to them to persuade them to do it. That was a situation in which the thing they wanted would be easier to obtain if they did what Akane said. They can be reasoned with...but there's no reason as of yet to assume that they would be willing to listen if there weren't delicious Makishima brains at stake and the things Akane wanted wouldn't help them to get it.

Sybil isn't courting her. They said "Continuing to observe and analyse your movements will provide us with valuable hints on how to build a methodology for winning over the citizens in the future and getting them to adapt" but also "Fight...Struggle...so that it may lead us to evolve". At least at present, what they want to see is how she reacts to the rock and a hard place situation that she's in. The way they choose to approach her may change later on after they gather more data, but the power difference won't be changing unless Sybil chooses to fundamentally alter the way it operates.

Courtship is a bad analogy for the situation. Akane can't tell courting-Sybil "Get out of my house and never darken my door again, you bastard!" or "Get lost, I'm dating somebody else!". It's a bit more like Sybil is hanging around saying "Bwahahaha, I've set things up so you have absolutely no choice but to marry me and grudgingly obey me even though you hate me. If you disobey me, I'll kill you. I'm going to work on you over time so that in the end you have Stockholm syndrome and you'll accept being the perfect submissive and adoring wife, and the more you struggle with this situation along the way, the more I'll learn how to break you." and Akane is saying "You think it'll be that easy? Someday you'll be gone and I'll be able to get a divorce!" while Sybil laughs at her.